We got there early enough to be ahead of the large tour groups; it costs 6 euros to be able to walk around the interior. The church is also open to people who don't want to pay and it's surprising how much of the cathedral is roped off for the walk-ins who actually can get a decent vantage point for taking pictures. Included in the entrance fee is an audio guide. You have to leave something you want back so they know you'll return it. Lola left her driver's license. The audio guide gave much more history than anyone would want to know so that got boring quickly. More exciting was the fact an orchestra was rehearsing for tonight's performance. At one point, the conductor yelled at a German tour guide who was talking loudly to his group. Most tour groups use audio devices so the guide doesn't have to scream and they don't bother others.
The cathedral has two towers. You can walk up one of them but it's more than 300 steps. The other one has a lift that costs 6 euros to ride. The elevator will hold only 5 people and the operator so it can be a wait to get in but it wasn't too bad. The views of the city are great. I had no idea Lola would develop a Johnnyesque fear of heights but she did. It can happen to me too sometimes but the area was enclosed in fencing so it wasn't too bad. View from above:
From there, we were going to the opera house to see about tours but Lola took the wrong street (yes, Lola, not me) and we accidentally ended up at St. Peter's which is another site in many visitors' must do lists. This cathedral is beautiful but small and a mass was in session so we didn't walk in the sanctuary.
For the afternoon, we decided to go to the Belvedere by way of the Hop on bus since we had time remaining on the tickets. We figured that would also give us a view of the outskirts of city since it was a different line than the one we used yesterday and it did, eventually.
Our experiences with transportation in this town leave something to be desired. Yesterday, our taxi driver from the train station hit an old lady. The car just tapped her and I thought maybe he did it on purpose because she was jaywalking but he had stopped abruptly several times. He just wasn't paying attention.
The hop on bus made about two stops before an accident in an intersection stopped most lanes of traffic in both directions. I don't know how long we sat watching the light turn to green, red, green etc. but it was frustrating. The police finally arrived and somehow got the wrecked car out of the intersection and traffic slowly resumed.
The traffic is terrible everywhere but it did lighten up a little in the sections on the outskirts. We got to the Belvedere past lunch time but we knew it had a cafe. The ticket line wasn't too long but entries are timed so the clerk said we should enter the building with the ticket but eat at the cafe before touring. She said we had 10 minutes to walk to the building so we could make the 1:00 timed entry. I knew it was really 2:00 but I didn't say anything. I thought the times didn't matter because it wasn't crowded.
The international incident occurred when we tried to get in with our 1:00 tickets at 2:00. The ticket collector pointed out we were late. We had to convince him we had just walked the 5 minutes from the ticket office. He finally let us in.
The Belvedere garden between the upper and lower buildings is beautiful. This picture is from inside the upper building since it's hard to get a picture of the whole thing from the ground.
There wasn't a crowd in front of it like there always is at the Mona Lisa; in fact, it's evident all over that tourist season is winding down.
For dinner, we had a fine Italian meal at a nearby restaurant called Trattoria Tuscana. The German/Austrian food is heavy and repetitious. At the Italian restaurant, we were able to get vin Santo and cantuccini for dessert instead of the nasty sacher torte.
No comments:
Post a Comment